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Sister “Rosie,” as she was affectionately called, was the founder of Louis Children Crisis Center (formerly Louis Infant Crisis Center). She was born in Limerick, Ireland, the middle child of seven. She joined the Catholic Order of the Sisters of the Holy Spirit and moved to the United States to do missionary work.
In 1979, while working and living at St. Lucy’s Day Care Center in Houma, Louisiana, she made a home visit to find out why two of the children were constantly missing school. Instead of locating the two children, she discovered a 7-month old baby lying on a dirty mattress on the floor, running a high fever, and quite ill. She found a young teenager in a back room who told her that their Mom was “at work”. Sister called the local protection service and was told that the agency could not take the baby or the two children because there was nowhere to place them.
For days, those words echoed in her mind and she could not forget the sick infant. She determined that she would provide shelter. She moved her living quarters upstairs in the day care building and converted the downstairs to nurseries. With $37 she obtained a state license to operate and Louis Infant Crisis Center became a reality. She saw an urgent need for a safe haven and infant care and never doubted that with faith she could make it happen. Sister developed a program for not only sheltering children, but created a healing environment that addresses negative behaviors caused by their previous chaotic home life. These homes take in children from shattered homes and according to her model, provide safety, nurturing, medical and psychological care, structure, support, and life skills.
She had a BA and Masters Degree in Social Work Education from Texas and was board certified with the National Board of Clinical Social Work in Washington, D.C.
Over the years, she became Houma’s most recognized, awarded, and ardent champion for children. Sister Rosario O’Connell went home to the Father on January 26, 2016 leaving thousands of bereaved behind who loved her and admired her life’s work. She was 87.
Her work with abused and neglected children is legendary. She won many, many awards and accolades over the years ---- The Courier Most Useful Citizen Award, The Arthritis Foundation Humanitarian Aware, the Blue Cross Angel Award, and she was named a “Daily Point of Light” in 1999 by the Washington D.C.-based Points of Light Foundation. Although she demurred from the attention on the one hand, on the other hand she realized that it was a way to inspire others to help “her” children and so she would gracefully accept her awards. She turned the praise to the community for their support which has indeed been generous to her program over the many years, particularly at Christmas.
There are many, many children who have passed through Louis Infant Crisis Center arriving battered and broken in body and spirit who have left and become happy, adjusted and successful adults. Sister would often visit children who had moved on to other parts of the State, and children grown to adults would seek her out and stop by to thank her. She was unflinching when advocating for her children and her diminutive frame belied a powerful fierceness that could be unleashed in the most genteel way when an obstacle stood in her path. There are few people alive who could say no when she wanted something for a child, and if they did, she went right on around them and prayed for their enlightenment.
In 1979, while working and living at St. Lucy’s Day Care Center in Houma, Louisiana, she made a home visit to find out why two of the children were constantly missing school. Instead of locating the two children, she discovered a 7-month old baby lying on a dirty mattress on the floor, running a high fever, and quite ill. She found a young teenager in a back room who told her that their Mom was “at work”. Sister called the local protection service and was told that the agency could not take the baby or the two children because there was nowhere to place them.
For days, those words echoed in her mind and she could not forget the sick infant. She determined that she would provide shelter. She moved her living quarters upstairs in the day care building and converted the downstairs to nurseries. With $37 she obtained a state license to operate and Louis Infant Crisis Center became a reality. She saw an urgent need for a safe haven and infant care and never doubted that with faith she could make it happen. Sister developed a program for not only sheltering children, but created a healing environment that addresses negative behaviors caused by their previous chaotic home life. These homes take in children from shattered homes and according to her model, provide safety, nurturing, medical and psychological care, structure, support, and life skills.
She had a BA and Masters Degree in Social Work Education from Texas and was board certified with the National Board of Clinical Social Work in Washington, D.C.
Over the years, she became Houma’s most recognized, awarded, and ardent champion for children. Sister Rosario O’Connell went home to the Father on January 26, 2016 leaving thousands of bereaved behind who loved her and admired her life’s work. She was 87.
Her work with abused and neglected children is legendary. She won many, many awards and accolades over the years ---- The Courier Most Useful Citizen Award, The Arthritis Foundation Humanitarian Aware, the Blue Cross Angel Award, and she was named a “Daily Point of Light” in 1999 by the Washington D.C.-based Points of Light Foundation. Although she demurred from the attention on the one hand, on the other hand she realized that it was a way to inspire others to help “her” children and so she would gracefully accept her awards. She turned the praise to the community for their support which has indeed been generous to her program over the many years, particularly at Christmas.
There are many, many children who have passed through Louis Infant Crisis Center arriving battered and broken in body and spirit who have left and become happy, adjusted and successful adults. Sister would often visit children who had moved on to other parts of the State, and children grown to adults would seek her out and stop by to thank her. She was unflinching when advocating for her children and her diminutive frame belied a powerful fierceness that could be unleashed in the most genteel way when an obstacle stood in her path. There are few people alive who could say no when she wanted something for a child, and if they did, she went right on around them and prayed for their enlightenment.
I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on my palms of my hands. Isaiah 49:16.
These are the words Sister chose as the herald for her program. And the emblem that adorns her correspondence and writings are of a child nestled serenely in a cupped, celestial hand – the hand that is now hers.